Last week of summer.

These beautiful blooms planted in July were nearly buried in weeds.  

The lovely Blakely girls, our favorite landscaping crew, weeded and mulched the flower garden by Leah's house last week. Just received pics this week.

 

I finally picked up last week's paper that had my article.

Jane and I enjoyed our Tuesday morning walk. We explored areas of the Taylor U campus that we had not seen before.

Michael put in long hours at Stephan's every day, and stops at Menard's once or twice a day for more parts.  He is working on the radiant heat control panel at this time. Father and son are focused on the inner workings of the house (heating and plumbing), not pretty or showy, but oh so important!

For more about the ongoing progress on the house, see Karen's weekly blog updates.

My work is to write. In March I began posting two chapters each month--the 1st and 15th are my self-imposed deadlines. Wednesday was the scheduled publication of chapter 14.

The task has become more demanding as I ran out of pre-written chapters, and now my primary source, my parents' letters, has dried up. 

I try to give time each day to the process of furthering the story of my early childhood in Argentina. 

1. Determine scope, content and theme of the chapter.

2. Research the sources, historical context, relevant photos and theme-appropriate Scripture.

3. Compose the narrative, edit and revise.

4. Schedule to publish on My Argentina.

5. Send English version to friend in Argentina for translation.

6. Edit, discuss and come to an agreement on any changes.

7. Post and schedule publication on Mi Argentina querida.

So, at the beginning of the week I was working on steps 6 & 7 for chapter 14. And then began immediately on chapter 15.

Later in the day come the chores--cooking, cleaning, etc. In the evenings when we finally are together, we sit in our favorite recliners, watch Jeopardy and some other show. That's when I knit a few more rows of whatever project is on hand. Eventually, stitch by stitch, there is a finished product. I truly enjoy making something useful out of scraps. This came from a massive pile of tangled yarn I found at the Helping Hand store. Not sure where it will go now. Perhaps to a program that helps out children in foster care.

Can you see what's wrong with this outfit?

Friday was Kristie's birthday. A couple days later we were privileged to visit them in their new house and see two of Sam's pendulum paintings. Wow! He is quite the artist.

Saturday was an adventure-filled day. Michael was going to go bicycling alone. I suggested we go hiking together. I was thinking of the cross-country trail. In an effort to make the adventure comparable to his usual 80 to 100 mile bike rides, he planned a route through our woods, across the road to another woods, to the cross-country trail, then the road to another trail and walk home. I asked how long that would take. What he hadn't counted on was that over the summer the paths he knew were all overgrown. He was leading me into the jungle! When we came out on the first road, we just walked home.

Early afternoon, we had some delightful little visitors. Kalani is fascinated by the wooden duck decoys.

Three grandboys arrived soon after to spend the night. We enjoyed an afternoon of games and fun. 

They stayed back that evening when we went to the wedding of Stephan and Karen's neighbor, Jasmine. For years now she has been a regular at Monday Night Dinner, so we've all become good friends.

The ceremony took place in the front field of Stephan's property. 

The wedding arch; the couple; Boomer, the ring-bearing dog 

We sat next to this lovely lady with the golden hair. The sun shone so bright. Karen's hair glistened like gold.

It was a fun evening. And when we got home, the boys were still alive and awake. Elijah had prepared a tasty egg dish. 

Sunday afternoon, we took the boys home and toured the new house. It was wonderful to spend the afternoon catching up with one another.

The boys brought out the new musical instrument in the family, Zion's trombone. My Dad would've loved this scene.